No Douglas Murray tonight, a former Junior Shark returns to The Tank and more on that realignment plan

First, the news. Defenseman Douglas Murray will not be on the ice tonight against the Minnesota Wild at HP Pavilion.

Murray hurt his right wrist/hand Saturday night against Florida, presumably blocking a shot. Justin Braun has been recalled from Worcester. But coach Todd McLellan was doing little to tip his hand about the pairings tonight, and even said it’s possible he might dress seven defensemen.

McLellan did say there was a chance they could start the way the pairings looked in practice Monday. And they were:

Vlasic-Boyle

Vandermeer-Burns

Demers-White

“They’ll be all over the map,” McLellan said of the pairings. “How does that sound? We’ll start a certain way and until we find something we like. Then we’ll go from there.”

McLellan added what should be obvious to most Sharks fans: The blue line hasn’t been very good lately.

“We believe that we have eight defensemen who can play in the league on any given night,” he said. “Their level of play is a concern because we weren’t very good the other night (against Florida). We like the mix we have. We just have to put it together now.”

Whatever blue-liners do play, they’ll be in front of goaltender Antti Niemi.

* Minnesota winger Casey Wellman, who grew up in the East Bay city of Brentwood and was a member of the Junior Sharks program, will play at the Shark Tank for the first time tonight.

Well, sort of. He skated there during intermissions with his youth hockey team.

“I probably was like 10,” Wellman said. “I was pretty young.”

Now he gets to do the real thing. There will be about 20 family members present tonight, and it will be the first time his parents have been in the building during one of his professional hockey games.

Wellman, 24, has two goals and an assist in three games since being recalled from the Houston Aeros of the AHL on Nov. 27.

“I’m really happy with him,” Minnesota coach Mike Yeo said. “His speed has been a factor in every game. Obviously he’s been scoring goals. But you look where he’s been scoring the goals from. He’s making goal-scorer goals, going to the net. He’s just playing good hockey.”

Wellman probably was born to be an athlete. Father Brad was a major-league utility infielder who played parts of five seasons with the Giants in the 1980s. But the son took to hockey and grew up with Owen Nolan and Jeff Friesen as his childhood heroes.

Looking for better hockey competition, Wellman moved to Michigan at age 14 to attend a boarding school. He later played two years at Cedar Rapids in the United States Hockey League before attending the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, where he played two seasons.

There, he was teammates with the Sharks’ Braun. They have remained close since college and went out to dinner Monday night when they both got to town. In fact, Wellman lived with the Braun family last summer at their Minnesota home.

They stayed in two rooms in the basement.

“One room is his and I just had a little futon in the room before his,” Wellman said. “His mom is just really great. But he got a new place, so next summer we’ll be moving in there.”

Wellman knows how rare it is for a California kid to reach the NHL.

“When I tell people that I’m from Northern California, nobody can believe that I’m a hockey player,” he said.

But he hopes that he can be an example to other local hockey kids.

“It says a lot about what they’re doing here,” he said of reaching the NHL. “It’s definitely growing. There’s guys from Southern California who have made it pretty far, but now it’s great that guys from Northern California are making it, too. And I know there’s a lot of guys from the San Jose Junior Sharks who have gone on to play in college.”

* The Sharks seemed generally pleased with realignment plan that was approved by the NHL Monday.

The creation of four new conferences places the Sharks with Los Angeles, Anaheim, Vancouver, Colorado, Phoenix, Edmonton and Calgary. Also, there will be home-and-home games with every team outside of that conference. That guarantees every season players like Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin will come to the Shark Tank.

“I like seeing all the teams, and I think that’s the general consensus among the players,” Torrey Mitchell said. “We all like to see everyone. But it’s going to be tough to get out of that conference. It really increases your focus to do well inside the conference.”

McLellan pointed out that if this system were in place last season, Los Angeles would not have made the playoffs. But Dallas would have made the postseason.

“You’re going to need 100 points to get in, and that’s pretty darn hard in this league,” he said. “It makes it competitive.”

Ryane Clowe said he’s curious to see what the schedule will look like next season.

“I think you want to go through it for a year, experience it and see how it goes,” he said. “No one is really sure how it’s going to be. But I’m always up for change. I like to mix it up. . . . I think it’s a little bit exciting and most guys are looking forward to it.”

But Marc-Edouard Vlasic said the new system probably will cost him some money now that the Sharks will be playing in his native Montreal every year.

“A guaranteed trip to Montreal is nice,” he said. “But I have to pay five grand every year in tickets. I get between 30 and 50 people. If I’m going there every year, I’ve got to tell people that they have to buy their own tickets.”

* With Devin Setoguchi and Dany Heatley back in town, there were some reunions Monday. Setoguchi and Mitchell, the former roommates, went out to dinner. And Clowe had coffee with Setoguchi and Heatley.

“It was good saying hello to them, and I certainly will say hello to them again tonight when I try to run them over,” Clowe said.

He also noted that Heatley is a player who likes to talk to opponents -– much the way a baseball first baseman will gab with baserunners.

“I always gave it to Heater when he played here because he was always chit-chatting on the ice,” Clowe said. “I always used to tell him to be quiet out there and stop talking.”

Heatley responded that he will see if Clowe has anything to say tonight.

“I’ll probably talk to him a bit and see what he says,” Heatley added. “I probably won’t get much out of him. But we did our talking last night.”

I say play Braun and sit Boyle. But I’m not a big fan of White, either.

The pessimist in me says that this is a *very* bad game tonight.

Almaden Fin Fan

There is only “up” from here. :-/

The Sharks can do better, and I hope that Saturday night’s failure inspires a better-synchronized and individually coordinated level of play out of these guys.

#1 Gerry – I agree, but only on a 1-night trial basis. Don’t know why Boyle’s performance is down, but I’m suspecting that he’s playing through a cold or other ailment. He just doesn’t have the wind or legs that he normally does.

GP

IMO, you can’t transpose the points from any previous season to next season’s format. The schedule was different than it will be. Very different actually. It will affect many intangible things, like rivalries. But, the decisions have been to try and keep current reg season rivalries. There will be many more important games than there are now with the larger divisions of teams. Example: playing the ‘Nucks 1 or two more times is huge.

Also, IMO, potential trades as a result, may not happen. This is an extreme application, but still will be a consideration for GMs in the future.

Another concept that is not perceived very well IMO — the # of teams per conf, 7 or 8. It does not matter. Having 7 teams does not make it easier. It may actually be harder. But, there is no way to quantify that as far as I can tell. Bottom line, why I think it does not matter, you still have to be the top 4 in your conf or you’re playing golf.

So, I think TMac was incorrect in siting the standings from last season and transposing to the new format.

Go Hatrick Marleau

Puckace,

Sorry, I thought I was putting the right name in.

Ńø Çøłīń Whītę. Put Braun with Burns, Boyle, or Vlasic.

GP

An NFL example: it is very possible in the NFL that the Wild Card team has a better record than a division winner. The team that is 8-8 will also get home field even if the Wild card team is 9-7. I know people have issues with that too.

The point is that no system will be perfect. But, everyone will be playing under the same format.

The eastern based conf, with 7 teams, Will need tyo play their conf opponents 6 times guaranteed. Is that harder or easier to make the POs?

Go Hatrick Marleau

Puckace,

When you said nice switch of the letter there, I thought you were talking about me switching Patrick to Hatrick.

GP

However, I do agree with some of BC’s arguments he made a couple posts ago.

I still think this will be good thing for league overall. The NHL finally has framework for the league that makes more sense than at any other time I can remember. It still is possible that it could be a disaster, but probably not. Less adjustments will need to be made within this structure.

When new teams come in or teams move, there is a criteria for what will happen.

I can’t explain it, but I think also, there is potential contraction. This structure will make it easier to adjust.

capnblinky

how is it not easier to beat out 3 teams for a playoff spot than 4 teams?

GP

The bottom line for this big decision, if you haven’t guessed, is, Da DA DAAA! Money!

TV money — you get more advertising dollars when the games are in, or closer to, prime time. Just ask Detroit. When games are at 10:30 pm, they get so much less. The Wings need the money don’t they? They don’t fill the building until the POs because Detroit is an economic wasteland. Tumbleweeds don’t need a ticket to get into the Joe.

Overhead-travel. Teams will save on travel IMO. Even the Western based confs. The word is that more efficient trips will be scheduled.

Then of course the NHL will promote (read: buying into the Al Gore scam) how they are doing a better job at reducing the carbon footprint or the use the magic words — “going green.”

Joe

The realignment is interesting because it pretty much means the Sharks entire universe is these other 7 teams. Nobody else really matters unless they get to the third round of the playoffs. That certainly will up the rivalries among these teams.

GP

capnblinky, I’m just asking the question. I don’t know. If you have to play less teams that want the same thing, the road may indeed be harder.

In the instance that you stink in the conf group, head to head, and do great against the balance of the league, you might make the POs despite having a losing record in your own group. That extra game in your own group may be the 2 points you need to be #4 in the conf. If you’re 0-5 vs that particular team and probably won’t win that 6th game, you might be playing golf the second week April instead of practicing for the 1st round of POs.

Jeeper

Poor M-E-V! $5,000 a year of his $3,500,000 salary now has to go for friends’ tickets. Boo-hoo…

capnblinky

gp, with conference play weighted so heavily (5 or 6 games against each conf opponent) it’s definitely an advantage to be in a conference where you only have 3 teams to best.

capnblinky

i liked the three levels of intensity of the current system: easter foes, who we played once or twice a year, conference foes (detroit, chicago) who we played four times a year, and of course our division who we saw six times a year each.

in the new system, detroit is no more a rival than the new york islanders. two times each. that’s a huge loss. they’ve just created only two levels of intensity, if you will. i think we’ll grow tired of seeing this many teams six times per year. and then when the playoffs come around, oh great, the same teams for the first two rounds.

also, you’re going to have what could be the second best team in the nhl out in the second round some years, if one conference is that strong. think vancouver and sj. that’s a shame. as it stands in the current system, the worst that happens is the best two are in a conference final together.

Geri(h)atric

@capnblinky: Not necessarily. If you have a conference with a couple of doormats (say, Columbus and Carolina this year, or the Capitals in one of their big slupms) and 8 teams, you get some easy points. It’s gonna fluctuate year-to-year.

capnblinky

lol. *eastern, not easter. although i’m intrigued at my own typo.

capnblinky

geri, you’re totally right. it will fluctuate. but to look at the big picture, you have to assume equal competition, and it weighs slightly uneavenly.

GP

Parity eliminates many of the doormats. They will exist though.

Remember the contrary argument. A few years ago, when the Panthers were still expansion level, they made the POs and were clearly the worst team of the 16, at least of the 8 in the east. But, they still made the finals — as a 3rd year team. Many better teams did not make it.

Personally, the last couple seasons, the best match-up happened in 2nd round SJ/Wings. Neither won the cup. The idea that the best teams won’t make the finals has always existed.

capnblinky

yes, that possibility has always existed. but the current system minimizes it. the only way to minimize it even more is one giant conference.

capnblinky

anyway, there are clearly pros and cons to the realignment. it’s not black-and-white. just a question of which outweighs which. i’m of the opinion that the cons outweigh.

Fred Sanford

To further GP’s NFL example from #5, a couple years ago the New England Patriots were 11-5 and missed the playoff altogether while other teams with lesser records made it because they were in a different division/conference. About nine or ten years ago the 49ers were 12-4 and ended up with the number five seed (out of six), while a division winner with a worse record had a higher seed. Sure these things are anomalies and you can find them in certain years, but they usually shake out in the long run and you have to think globally in the long run when it comes to realignment.

A couple years ago in the NHL, you could argue that the Sharks and Blackhawks were the two best teams in the NHL. They had to meet in the Western Conference finals and only one could play the Flyers. In the new setup, they could have played for the Cup.

The only way I see the possibility of the two best teams not playing for the Cup (other than losing in the playoffs) would be, as capnblinky points out, if the two best teams played in the same conference. I guarantee that will happen one year and there will be screaming that one of those teams will be out in the second round. But how many times is that really going to happen? I’m sure it is going to happen, just like an 11-5 NFL team missing the playoffs, but it will not be the norm. Again, you have to look at the big, long-term picture.